AGENCY: How do I imagine? A lecture by Megan Tamati-Quennell
This lecture is presented as part of AGENCY: A curatorial intensive in three questions How do I learn? How do I act? How do I imagine? presented by Artspace Aotearoa and Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery. Read more about the full symposium programme.
How do I imagine: Ihi: The poetics of possibility
Megan Tamati-Quennell responds to the provocation How do I imagine? through a reflection on the conception and realisation of Ihi, her curatorial project for Sharjah Biennial 16, to carry, held in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates in 2025.
Drawing on Māori philosopher Māori Marsden’s definition of ihi as ‘a psychic rather than a spiritual force,’ the presentation explores how transcendent or autonomous power can operate within curatorial practice as a catalyst for cross-cultural solidarity.
As well as discussing the concepts evolved for Ihi, Tamati-Quennell will consider how her curatorial methodology of foregrounding Indigeneity and First Nations art, not as peripheral inclusions but as central and generative forces, offered alternate modalities and frames to the globe spanning exhibition of the Sharjah Biennial.
Her presentation contemplates the wider curatorial structure of Sharjah Biennial 16, to carry, developed collectively by the five curators - Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Natasha Ginwala, Zeynep Öz and Tamati-Quennell - through five interrelated exhibitions: Rosestrata: Trajectory/Translation, Throwing Shells, The Ancestral Well: Pulse to Terrain, Yaz and Ihi.
Polyphonic, pluri-centric and porous in its structure, Sharjah Biennial 16, to carry enabled each curator - all women of colour - to speak from distinct positionalities while remaining connected within a shared curatorial ecology. Central to the broader curatorial context were questions conceived collectively, which underpinned the biennial offering;
What does it entail ‘to carry’ your home, ancestors and political formations with you? What do we carry when it is time to travel, flee or move on? What are the passages that we form as we migrate between territories and across time? What do we carry when we remain? What do we carry when we survive?
Within Ihi, these propositions resonated through ideas of carrying land, history, grief, ruptured and unsettled pasts, embodied and reclaimed knowledges, speculative futures and more, intrinsic within First Nations cultures, but which also extended meaningfully across the wider constellation of works within Tamati-Quennell’s Ihi exhibition
Workshop participants already have a reserved place at this lecture and are not required to RSVP.
AGENCY: A curatorial intensive in three questions How do I learn? How do I act? How do I imagine? is presented by Artspace Aotearoa and Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery and supported by Chartwell Trust, Goethe Institut, National Services Te Paerangi, and Toi o Aotearoa Creative New Zealand Te Manu Ka Tau International Delegates Programme.
Symposium Schedule
Ngā Mokopuna, 42–50 Kelburn Parade on Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington campus, Wellington. Lectures will be held in Aho Ruruku, the entry level amphitheatre of Ngā Mokopuna, and workshops within the same building. Everyone is welcome to all parts of the symposium programme except the workshops which are fully booked. Kai is provided at noted times.
Friday 14 August
From 5:30pm Arrival
6:00–6:15pm Hosts welcome and opening address Abby Cunnane
6:15–7:30pm How do I learn?: Restoring the Spirit of Collections and Place, an Indigenous space-time curatorial methodology. A lecture by Kimberley Moulton
7:30pm Shared kai (all welcome, please RSVP for numbers)
Saturday 15 August
10am–12.00 How do I learn? A workshop led by Kimberley Moulton with Bridget Riggir-Cuddy
12.30pm–1.30pm Lunch (workshop participants only)
2pm–3pm How do I act?: Modus Operandi. A lecture by Clémentine Deliss
3–3.30pm Afternoon tea (all welcome)
3.30–5.30pm How do I act? A workshop led by Clémentine Deliss with Ruth Buchanan
6pm Beer and chips (all welcome)
7pm–8pm How do I imagine?: Ihi: The poetics of possibility. A lecture by Megan Tamati-Quennell
8.15pm Closing words by Abby Cunnane
Sunday 16 August
11am–1pm How do I imagine? A walk at Ōtari-Wilton Bush
Meet at entrance, 150 Wilton Rd, Wilton, Te Whanganui-a-Tara
Biography
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Megan Tamati-Quennell is a leading curator and writer. She has a 36-year curatorial career specialising in modern and contemporary Māori and Indigenous art. Megan is the longest serving curator in this field receiving a CNZM in 2024, for her contribution to Māori and First nations art. She is of Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Mutunga, Ngai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Waitaha descent. Megan has held curatorial positions at the National Art Gallery, Te Papa Tongarewa and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and has worked as an independent curator at the Sharjah Art Foundation and in Busan, South Korea. She currently holds the position of Curator, Modern and Contemporary Māori and Indigenous Art at Te Papa. Recent career highlights include co-curating Sharjah Biennial 16, to carry, 2025 and Emily Karaka: Ka Awatea, A New Dawn, the first major survey exhibition of senior Māori painter Emily Karaka, 2024. Megan is a PhD candidate in Fine Arts, in an Indigenous-led programme at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.